Summertime, I like open water swimming. I’m a member of a team who swim in lochs and rivers and the sea.

I like cycling. I have a tourer bicycle. There are mornings I load the panniers and tail the coastline. Pass the day on the bike. Fat miles. I’ve done my share of 100 milers. Cycling is a favourite spring/summer passtime.

Wintertime I write and read and play chess and swim at a health club.

My parents and grandparents were readers. They read the big novels.

Mother read the Russian and Asian and North American and South American authors. She read Scots and English and Welsh and Irish authors. And the poets. She cherished James Joyce and Joan Didion and Carol Shields and Dorothy Parker and Leo Tolstoy.

Grandpa was my pal. I grew up close to him. Not ‘living near him’ close. Spirit close. He took me places. Up the town walks. Museum visits. Library trips to swap gran’s novels. We walked a lot. He was funny and chatty and warm. A storyteller. And a joketeller. Here’s a typical him and me day…

Grandpa and me out for a walk. I’m seven…

Me: ‘Wow. See that bee?’

Grandpa: ‘Big buzzer. See the warrior on its back? Waving his axe.’

‘Ha ha ha. No there wasn’t.’

‘Knock knock, Mike.’

‘Who’s there?’

‘Beezer.’

‘Beezer who?’

‘Beezer black and yellow.’

That’s my grandpa. One day he quiet left me. I carried his coffin. He is my ever friend.

My mother. A steel honest woman. Witty and kind and sillyish and smart. A crossword solver. Cryptic specialist. My infanthhood I felt safe with her. Small hour nighttime, when I woke feary, her lamplight came in my open door. I heard her breathe. Heard her page turn. I liked hearing her read when the house was groany and dark. I easy fell asleep to her breath.

I see her at the stove, open book in hand, pot stirring, away with the words.

Bedtime, I lived Alaska. I heard midnight wolves sing to the moon lonely. The moon silver as the wolves. I loved and feared the gold prospectors, the good and blackhearted, men grizzly as the bears. I saw many beaten gibbery in the white wild.

Reading Jack London my want to write happened. Within a month of reading him I had written a notebook of stories.

Aged 14 I wrote a short novel. Schoolpals and teachers passed it around. They were in it.

I have since written many stories. Enough to fill a dozen books. And perhaps a dozen stories that would make one good book.

Up the lane I joined a writers group. I read more books. Past and contemporary authors. After a learny time I left the group.

I read and read and reread.

In 2011, I was shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize. And The Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award.

December 2012, my short story – Bone Dirt – was a Top 25 Finalist in Glimmer Train’s Fiction Open Prize.

I was happy.

Glimmer Train is a world regal literary journal .

The Fiction Open is Glimmer Train’s top prize. Unpublished writers take on established published authors.

My short story ‘Gomorrah Shade’ was a winner in the Fish Short Story Prize. The story is in the Fish Anthology 2014. I’m delighted and honoured. The Fish Anthology is worldwide revered.

And I was Cormac McCarthy on Twitter. I meant it to be a tribute-tweet thing. But it overnight famoused me. Or infamyed me. I was interviewed by The Atlantic.

My novel EDEN DUST is written. Four years work.

My story combines naturalism – the way people talk and behave – and big unnatural, dehumanising situations.

How I describe my novel – Think esoteric Twin Peaks. But adulter.

There is grief and lies and cowardice and perversion and spite. There is pure love. And grey humour. And death. There are five characters. One is the earthscape.

I have posted the first three chapters of Eden Dust on this site. Please consider leaving a comment. Liked or not.

An extract from my novel is published in Unthology 4 by Unthank Books. A prestigious short story collection. It was an exciting day for me when the piece was selected by the editors in Cambridge. I share pages with some of Britain’s finest authors. I read at the book launch in November 2013.

Two reviews of Unthology 4 are posted on my blog.

I’m near done with editing the novel.

As things stand, my MS will sail to four agents and two editors. London and New York.

Unthank Books editor, Ashley Stokes, is a fine author of literary fiction. I recommend his short story collection The Syllabus of Errors.

In July 2015, I was commissioned to write a story for an art project. An exciting anthology on the theme The End. The artist, Nicolas Ruston, painted fifteen The End images. Fifteen authors have written stories for the images. Each author’s own interpretation of their choice painting.

Mid September I submitted my story. Two weeks later the editor said he liked it. Only edit needed was a title change. I was relieved and glad. The editor suggested a title. His title was story-match right.

Nicolas Ruston is gifted. I feel fortunate to be part of the project. Fine authors are in the anthology. The book launch and art exhibition is in April 2016. It’s a unique project. Here is the project website: http://www.fifteen-endings.co.uk

There’s a direct click-on-link in a The End post.

There are authors I return to. Rereading them I remember the first time I read them. My age and place and feelings when I found them.

I like many authors, from many countries, past and contemporary authors. Recently I read the African authors. I have a sunshine spot for Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi.

Lovely, Michael. I’m just packing at the moment to leave for the states for the first time, so this was a perfect post to read, on top of the lyrical experience it gave. Well done for finishing your book – it all starts here!